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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added Albania Deleon, former president of Massachusetts' largest asbestos removal training school, to its fugitives Web site. Deleon failed to appear for her sentencing on March 23 at the Federal District Court, District of Massachusetts, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest, according to an April 2 press release.
Last November, a federal jury convicted Deleon, a resident of Andover, Mass., of selling certificates from Environmental Compliance Training of Metheun, Mass., to hundreds of undocumented immigrants who had not taken the mandatory training course. The individuals who purchased the training certificates without the training filed them with the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety so they could work in the asbestos removal industry. Hundreds of these individuals were sent to asbestos demolition sites in Massachusetts and other New England states.
Deleon sent the individuals to perform removal work at job sites through her temporary employment agency that specialized in asbestos demolition and paid them "under the table" for their work. She did not report these employees to the IRS and workers compensation organizations, allowing her to save more than $1 million dollars in tax and insurance payments. The company shut down in May 2007.
Last November, a federal jury convicted Deleon on 28 felony counts, including one count of conspiracy in making false statements, encouraging illegal aliens to reside in the United States, and hiring illegal aliens; five counts of making false statements; 16 counts of procuring false payroll tax returns, and six counts of mail fraud. Evidence presented at trial indicated that more than half of the individuals receiving certificates had not taken the necessary training, posing health risks to the individuals and to those near the asbestos work sites.
Deleon is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic. Anyone seeing her should contact the EPA Fugitives Web site, www.epa.gov/fugitives, or contact the EPA Criminal Investigation Division office in Boston at 617.918.2300.
This free educational webinar will provide a detailed process for climate-driven "pre-response" in a variety of key areas including: Supply Chain Disruptions, Employee Safety and Productivity, Regulatory and Compliance Risks …and many more areas.


text:
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Por questões de segurança, por favor feche o seu browser quando terminar de aceder aos serviços que necessitam de autenticação!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Wizards of Money
In The Alchemists, economic journalist Neil Irwin argues that the financial crisis of 2007–08 made the central bankers of the U.S., U.K., and Europe the most powerful people on earth.
The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire
by Neil Irwin, Penguin Press, 2013
Now that five years have passed since the failure of Lehman Brothers turned the financial crisis of 2007–08 into a full-blown market panic, it's useful to look back at the lessons learned. Washington Post reporter Neil Irwin, in his new book, The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire, provides an excellent insider's account from the policy perspective, but not—at least for this reader—much optimism about the future. (The title refers to medieval alchemists' quest to turn base metals into gold. Modern central bankers have discovered a better trick: creating money out of thin air.)
Irwin was assigned to cover the U.S. Federal Reserve in August 2007, just as the wheels began to come off the mortgage-backed securities market and the mayhem began to build. He was thus perfectly situated to report on the crisis and its aftermath, and he has made the most of his opportunity. The Alchemists is a deeply researched and painstakingly reported account of what went wrong, and how the world's top three central bankers—Ben Bernanke at the Fed, Jean-Claude Trichet at the European Central Bank, and Mervyn King at the Bank of England—struggled to keep the global financial system from capsizing.
The Alchemists begins with a nicely told history of central banking that will be helpful to most readers. The world's first central bank, Sweden's Stockholms Banco, went belly-up in the middle of the 17th century, marking the first, but far from last, time a monetary policy blunder ignited a business downturn. The feckless central banker, Johan Palmstruch, was sentenced to death, although the sentence was later commuted.
It wasn't till the mid-19th century that monetary policy came into its own, during the panic that followed the failure of the London bank Overend, Gurney & Co. in 1866. As the money market froze up, threatening the British economy, the Bank of England flooded the banking system with money, ensuring that banks could continue to fund businesses. This innovation was highly successful; the crisis passed somewhat quickly, and economists learned that a central bank, acting boldly, can stop a market panic and limit the consequent losses in economic activity.
But future central bankers failed to learn from the Bank of England's experience. After the stock market crash of 1929, as Irwin goes on to relate, the Federal Reserve failed to act aggressively to protect the banking system, provoking the Great Depression.
The world was lucky that Ben Bernanke was running the Fed when the panic of 2008 began. A monetary economist and former Princeton professor whose field of study had been the Great Depression, Bernanke immediately recognized the gravity of the situation, and applied the lessons of 1866 with energy and imagination. He orchestrated a series of monetary policy maneuvers, which have continued since, to keep the banking industry working and interest rates low enough to enable economic recovery. Bernanke's European counterparts were slower to act, and their economies have paid the price in slower recoveries.
The other large lesson that should have been learned from the Great Depression was that governments can limit the downside of a recession by boosting government spending. U.S. policymakers did some of this, beginning with the unpopular US$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program in late 2008. But by historical standards, it wasn't a very big intervention, and little has been done since, as politicians pushed instead for lower government spending. European nations, even more disastrously, embraced austerity from the beginning, which has put them right back at the threshold of recession.
Irwin's reporting enlivens what can easily be a dry subject. He recounts, for example, how then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (now the mayor of Chicago) responded, shortly after President Obama took office in January 2009, when a staffer told him that it could take weeks to draft a financial reform bill. Emanuel, Irwin relates, said, "Sit down and start fucking typing."
The book answers many questions authoritatively, but some of the biggest and most important ones are outside The Alchemists' scope. One is how successful central bankers will be in unwinding the current era of cheap money without unleashing inflation or causing recession. Another is how Europe will be able to preserve its common currency while serving the needs of its economically diverse members. Finally, it's difficult to put The Alchemists down without asking whether enough re-regulating of the banking industry has been done to ensure that it won't all happen again.
Author profile:
- Rob Norton is a freelance writer and editor, and an adjunct faculty member of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, he was executive editor of s+b and Fortune magazine.


text:
I'm exporting a project from iMovie to Final Cut Pro X.
Not all tracks are exported properly, mainly the pip tracks.
What I want to do is to re-make in FCPX the same pip effect that in iMovie is named "exchange" (or something like this, my version is not in english).
Is there some fast way to to that in FCPX or I have to play with the keyframes each time?


text:
When it comes to snow plowing and snow removal, Waukesha & Milwaukee turn to Liban's Landscaping to get the job done right for your home or business!
Family-owned and operated since 1972, we have the knowledge and certification to offer you the highest quality performance in landscaping and snow removal Waukesha — any job that you need done! Perfection is our foremost concern. Our staff is equipped with the best tools in the industry. It's the care and concern of our customers, as well as our attention to detail, that has made us the top choice for snow removal, Waukesha and beyond!
Proud members of the Better Business Bureau


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A silvery green olive grove set in the red soil of a Palestinian village is a crime scene - testament to a practice so sensitive that it is spoken of only in whispers.
One night in late November, Rasha Abu Ara, a 32-year-old mother of five, was beaten to death and strung from a gnarled tree branch as a gruesome badge of "family honor" restored.
Related stories:
- Yemeni burns daughter to death for contacting fiancé
- Gaza wedding: 15-year-old groom, 14-year-old bride
- Indictment: Man set fire to daughter for meeting men online
The woman's alleged sin was adultery, and her killer was either her own brother or husband, security sources told Reuters. Both are behind bars while an investigation continues.
Her murder brought to 27 the number of women slain in similar circumstances in Palestinian-run areas this year, according to rights groups - more than twice last year's victims.
The rise has led Palestinians to question hidebound laws they say are lax on killers, as well as a reluctance to name and shame in the media and society, which may contribute to a feeling of impunity among perpetrators.
"It feels like something that belongs to another time," said one young man in Aqqaba who refused to give his name, the first hints of a beard on his chin. "But, it's standard."
A week after the crime, Aqqaba mayor Jamal Abu Ara, who is a member of the victim's extended family, and his brothers sat in their village home, smoking cigarettes and choosing their words carefully.
"This act has no religion - it comes from closed, tribal thinking left over from an age of ignorance. People here are walking around in a haze; they want to know who did it and why. Of course, it's the first time it's happened here," he said.
His brother added: "Islam requires you have four witnesses to prove the act of adultery.
"It's not right what happened. Especially since if it were a man, some would just say 'boys will be boys'," he said.
A representative of the slain woman's family declined to speak to Reuters.
"Honor killing" is a social menace that occurs throughout the Middle East, though precise figures are often elusive.
In neighboring Jordan, for example, a Cambridge University survey of attitudes among young people published in June found that a third of respondents agreed with the practice.
The researchers attributed the result to low levels of education and "patriarchal and traditional world views, emphasis placed on female virtue and a more general belief that violence against others is morally justified."
The study estimated an average of 15 to 20 such killings occur every year in Jordan, with a population of around 6.3 million, compared to around 4 million in Palestinian lands.
Some activists believe the rise in honor killings indicates social and economic problems are mounting in the territories, where Palestinians exercise limited self-rule but Israel holds ultimate sovereignty, including over commerce.
But Soraida Hussein, whose rights group Muntada tallied this year's killings, said the practice also has deep roots.
"There is no balance in power relations between the genders. There is a patriarchal mentality...as always, the force and pressure in society is transferred from the strong to the weak," she said.
Palestinian female participation in the labor force stands at 17 percent, a figure the World Bank called "abysmally low," noting that employers appeared to favour men, among whom joblessness was almost a third lower in 2013.
Hussein said that most of the killings related to "the movement and the freedom of the woman, so (perpetrators) say it's an 'honor killing '... also, there's still no clear law to discourage the practice."
Many of the cases had economic underpinnings, such as connections to disputes over inheritance, or may have been committed to cover up incest, she added.
The passing of stricter laws on violence against women is hamstrung by the absence of a Palestinian parliament, which has not met since President Mahmoud Abbas 's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas group fought a brief, bloody civil war in 2007.
Abbas has used his executive power to amend or cancel parts of the penal law, but has not yet changed all legislation which applies a separate status to domestic violence and has been used to justify killings and lighten prison sentences.
Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs Rabiha Diab saved much of her blame for violence toward women for Israel: "The Israeli occupation is the one practicing the utmost violence ... it's the main thing keeping us from advancing.
"There's been a deterioration, financial and psychological pressure on our society, poverty. But there are also certain backward cultural legacies that must be combated," she said.
Unemployment and poverty both increased in 2013, with both standing at around 25 percent. Growth has slowed from boom rates averaging around 9 percent annually in 2008-2011 to just 1.8 percent in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in the first half of 2013, according to the World Bank.
Not just laws but lawmakers may be part of the problem.
Residents of the northern West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun began muttering about Thamar Zeidan, a 32-year-old mother of two, after an apparently intoxicated man was spied leaving her home one morning, a local source told Reuters.
Elders, including a Hamas member of parliament, soon gathered and signed an announcement formally banishing her family from the larger tribe. The notice was pasted on the outer walls of homes and on the village mosque.
Days later in late September, Thamar was choked to death with a metal wire in her sleep.
Her father confessed to the deed.
The lawmaker, Abdel Rahman Zeidan, denied charges in the Palestinian media that the petition was tantamount to inciting murder, and said the banishment targeted the father, whom villagers say allowed his children too many freedoms.
"Taking the law into your own hands is wrong," he told Reuters. "These acts are unacceptable, and laws must be passed to discourage them."
Spreading awareness on the issue can open campaigners and journalists to criticism and even threats, which may partly explain its scant airing in public, however.
Press bulletins occasionally note the discovery of a woman's body in what are called "hazy circumstances" - a common euphemism for honor killings. Names are concealed and the news is rarely followed up on.
"When you touch such stories, you're up against a social taboo," said Palestinian journalist Naela Khalil, whose work focuses on women's issues.
"Here, the family is stronger than even the security forces. I might criticise Mahmoud Abbas more easily than a father or a brother who killed a woman. Doing this may mean a struggle with a whole family or village," she said.
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Beth Cook at FindMyPast.com passed this press release to me yesterday, which I found interesting.
Girls' names change 7 times more than boys' since 1940 Census: study by findmypast.com
Baby names reflect revolution in women's role
(and maybe also Darryl Hannah's mermaid in Splash)
"Madison" (the biggest riser since 1940) is the new "Betty" (the biggest faller)
"Names can be to genealogy what carbon-dating is to archaeology"
Los Angeles, CA – July 31st, 2012: The most popular baby names for American girls at the time of the 1940 U.S. Census have changed since then seven times more than the top names for boys the same year, reveals a study by the genealogy website, findmypast.com.
This striking difference between the fortunes of popular girls' and boys' names may reflect social changes over the last 72 years, says Brian Speckart, spokesperson for findmypast.com, which conducted the study to mark this year's recent release of the records from the 1940 Census.
"Women's role in society has seen a revolution since 1940", says Speckart. "Men's role has changed too, though far less." New names may have helped women forge new lives.
Findmypast.com researchers analyzed the records of the U.S. Social Security Administration, which has recorded baby names, based on Social Security applications for births, since 1879.
The top 10 girls' names in 1940, they found, have fallen by an average of over 700 [707] places in the popularity rankings since – nearly seven times as far as the top 10 boys' names the same year, which have dropped an average of barely 100 [104] places.
None of the top 10 girls' names in 1940 even make today's top 100. Three of the top 10 names from 1940 (Betty, Carol, Shirley) have now dropped entirely from the top 1,000, compared to none of the equivalent boys' names. Betty, Carol and Shirley are now the names of deceased grandmothers and aged aunts – the names that time forgot.
"Baby names are like period pieces", says Josh Taylor, genealogist for findmypast.com. "Some recall a particular era, which can make them clues when researching family history. So, you can sometimes guess roughly when someone was born simply by their first name. In such cases, names can be to genealogy what carbon-dating is to archaeology."
This is far truer, however, of girls' names than of boys'. Seven of the top 10 boys' names from 1940 are still in the top 100, while three (James, David, William) remain in the top 20, and one (William) makes the top three. William is the only top 10 name from 1940 that is still in the top 10, while last year's royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton seems to have further boosted its ranking.
Only one of the 10 most popular names from 1940 (Mary) is even in the top 500 today, while ALL of the top boys' names from 1940 are.
"We are becoming the men we wanted to marry", said the feminist Gloria Steinem, reflecting on the changing career choices of women. "In some cases", she might have added, "we are even taking their first names."
Madison is today the eighth most popular baby name for girls born in the U.S. Yet, it was originally a surname (as in James Madison, fourth president of the U.S.) and then for many years a boys' first name, until it faded from use in the 1950s.
Now, Madison is the new Betty. While Betty is the biggest faller in the girls' name leagues since 1940, Madison, along with Mia and Abigail, is the biggest riser. But while Betty was the name of a housewife and cake-baker, Madison is a "power" name – a name with its own shoulder-pads and parking space in the executive lot.
"American women used to have names like Betty and – like Betty Draper in the TV series, Mad Men – marry men with jobs on Madison Avenue", says Joshua Taylor. "Now, women are themselves called Madison and have top jobs – on Madison Avenue and beyond."
In fact, what suddenly made Madison a popular name for girls was the 1984 movie, Splash, in which Daryl Hannah played a mermaid who adopted the name "Madison" in human form after spotting a street sign for Madison Avenue.
Most of the top 10 ten girls' names today were rare in 1940, while at least three (Madison, Mia, Abigail) did not even rank in the top 1,000. "In 1940 you were as likely to meet a girl named Madison as a boy named Sue", says Taylor. Seven of today's top 10 girls' names have risen over 500 places since 1940, compared to just four of the boys'.
Not only do popular names for girls change more rapidly over time but girls' names are also more varied, with the 10 most popular ones accounting for a smaller share of all girls than the equivalent figure for boys. Meanwhile, at least half of the 10 most popular boys' names today have biblical or Hebrew origins – more than in 1940 – compared to one (or arguably two) of the girls' names.
Gender differences in naming may, even now, reflect different parental goals for sons and daughters, remarked Nicholas Christenfeld and Britta Larsen of UC San Diego, in a recent paper in The Psychologist.
"By avoiding the most common and old-fashioned names, parents may enhance their daughters' claims to be young and exotic, and thereby increase their mate value", suggest Christenfeld and Larsen. "In choosing more common and historically popular names for their boys, parents may signal that their sons are mature and established, and so help them to attract young, exotic mates."
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/comparison-of-girls-and-boys-names-in.html


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GRAND ISLE, La. – Biologist John Supan thinks he has developed what may be the holy grail for oyster lovers: a hardy breed of the delectable shellfish that stays fat enough for consumers to eat throughout the year.
And unlike many oysters across the Gulf Coast, ruined by BP's massive oil spill and the fresh water poured in to fight it, Supan's oysters are all alive.
Now, nearly four months after the spill, Supan's oysters may offer the Gulf oyster industry a chance for a better long-term recovery. But his special breed of modified oysters, which some say are prohibitively expensive, could be a hard sell to an industry reeling from the BP disaster.
Most oystermen agree that few oysters will be harvested from the Gulf Coast in the next year or two, signaling a potential calamity for shucking houses, oyster farmers and people who love a half dozen oysters on the half shell. As much as 65 percent of the nation's oysters come from the Gulf.
Oysters are particularly susceptible to pollution, taking longer than fish or shrimp to clear oil contamination from their bodies.
Supan's oysters are bred for performance, making them more fit to deal with viruses and other contaminants. Being sterile, they don't go through the stress of reproduction, so they stay fat and juicy all year round. Supan says his oysters are sweet, plump and meaty in summertime when other oysters become thin and watery.
But the most crucial advantage this year was their mobility.
Unlike the vast majority of oysters in the Gulf, which spend their lives on the bottoms of bays and sounds, Supan's oysters dangle in the water in cages at a hatchery on the inland side of this island.
When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20 just a few dozen miles from his hatchery, the 57-year-old Louisiana State University oyster biologist evacuated his broods to a research hatchery in Alabama and a wildlife preserve in western Louisiana. Then he brought them back.
"In my opinion, this is the most important brood of oysters in the history of the Gulf of Mexico," Supan says. "But you know, you ask an oysterman that and they will say, 'Huh?'"
He said the day is coming when all the Gulf's oystermen will know what he's talking about.
For three decades, Supan has been developing new oysters by mixing up their chromosomes in a process known as triploid production. He breeds a rare oyster that has extra chromosomes with a normal oyster and produces a sterile hybrid. The process is common on the East and West coasts but still untried in the Gulf, besides Supan's batch.
"I don't know if it's the future with a capital 'THE,' but it's very important," said Bill Walton, an Auburn University shellfish biologist. "It can give you a faster growing oyster. It cuts down production time and it does seem to solve the problem of 'water bellies' in the summer when oysters spawn and you have a tired, thin oyster."
"For the long-term viability of oysters in Louisiana what (the hatchery) is doing is the kind of pioneer work," said Mike Voisin, an oyster processor and leader in the Louisiana oyster industry.
The industry in Louisiana faces daunting threats from the oil pollution, oyster diseases and pressure from state and federal officials who want to reclaim lost marshland by opening up the Mississippi River even more often. If that happens, traditional oyster grounds could be ruined in many of the inland bays where they are grown today.
Helen Skansi, a 75-year-old Plaquemines Parish oyster company owner with more than 1,000 leased acres, is painfully aware of the problems.
"Things will never be the same with the bedding grounds they had before with the oil," she said.
Kenneth Fox, who leases 15,000 acres of state waters to grow his oysters, is equally concerned.
"I lost 95 percent of my leases with this oil spill," he said. "Everything is dead on the west side of the river."
Asked about Supan's super oysters, however, he was unconvinced.
"I think the research is great, and I think what he's doing is going to be a big help. But that is going to be a costly process."
Supan would like to see his special oyster larvae distributed through hatcheries across the Gulf to oyster growers. He said he could start distributing the larvae now.
But a lot has to happen for that to materialize. Ideally, the sterile oysters would be grown in cages in special areas designated as marine farms. And a host of permitting and zoning issues would have to be resolved.
Growing oysters the way Supan does is tricky. They are raised in structures propped up off the water bottom. That requires new harvesting equipment. Oystermen currently use mechanical devices like plows to scour their catch from the Gulf floor. It also would require new permits.
It takes about two years for an oyster to grow to market size.
Once the special summer oysters grow to adult size, then the oyster growers would have to find buyers. Typically, a dozen oysters cost about $12 at an oyster bar on the Gulf Coast. Supan said a cost analysis has not been done to figure out how much the summer oysters would cost. He says the market would take care of that.
"That's a big investment on a gamble," Fox said of Supan's experiments. "I'm not saying it won't happen one day, but the way Louisiana is set up, it's going to be hard to make happen. Half the people in the industry would have to get out of the business for the other half to make a profit."
Still, some institutions that fund research are persuaded that Supan's technique holds promise.
Supan's research has been backed by federal and state grants over his 30-year career. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently awarded Supan and other researchers a $250,000 grant to develop more hatchery technology.
Inside his algae room, Supan looks like a winemaker as he surveys tanks of algae he feeds to his oysters. The bacteria grows under fluorescent light.
"It takes a wet green thumb to grow algae," he said. "You got to be patient with it. It's very intuitive. Just like growing a garden. Some people say they talk to their house plants; well, my algae and myself have conversations all the time."
Supan has big plans.
He hopes the state will build an oyster dock where he can teach oyster farmers to grow oysters in saltier Gulf farms similar to his, where the oysters are reared to market size on platforms that thwart predators such as snails and bottom-feeding fish.
"With all these calamities — the hurricanes and the oil spill — we're five years behind schedule," he said.
Louisiana Sea Grant Bivalve Hatchery: http://bit.ly/aSWU6Z
Auburn University Shellfish Laboratory: http://bit.ly/9tDdnB


text:
Your Blood Type May Boost Your Heart Risk, Study Finds
But lifestyle is still more important, experts say
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_128242.html
(*this news item will not be available after 11/12/2012)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
You can, however, counter this genetic predisposition by living a healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet, exercise and well-controlled blood pressure, cholesterol and weight, experts say.
"Our data suggests the importance of knowing blood type as one factor in susceptibility to cardiovascular disease," said lead researcher Dr. Lu Qi, an assistant professor in the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
"Although we continue to recommend healthy lifestyle to everyone, those who carry high-risk blood types may need to pay more attention to reducing their risk," he added.
The report is published in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Although it found an association between blood type and increased risk of heart disease, a cause-and-effect relationship was not determined.
For the study, Qi's team collected data on more than 60,000 women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study and more than 17,000 people in the Health Professional Follow-up Study. Participants, who were between 30 and 75 years old, were followed for more than 20 years.
The researchers found that people with type AB -- the rarest blood type -- had a 23 percent increased risk for heart disease compared to people with type O blood. The increased risk was 11 percent for people with blood type B, and 5 percent for those with type A.
About 7 percent of Americans have type AB, while about 43 percent have type O, the most common blood type, the researchers noted.
To isolate the contribution of blood type to heart disease risk, Qi's group accounted for factors such as diet, age, weight, sex, race, smoking, menopause and medical history.
The study participants were mostly white, so whether these findings apply to other racial groups isn't known, Qi said. Neither are the reasons for the increased risk associated with certain blood types.
There is evidence, however, suggesting type A is associated with higher levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), the so-called bad cholesterol, the researchers said.
Also, type O may contain a factor that helps blood flow and prevents clotting, they said.
Dr. Gregg Fonarow, spokesman for the American Heart Association and professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was not surprised by the findings.
"Prior studies have reported that there is a relationship between non-O blood group and an increased risk of coronary heart disease," he said.
Blood type may be related to cardiovascular risk in a variety of ways, he said. Key factors involved in clotting are higher in non-O blood type individuals, and cholesterol levels also have been shown to vary by blood group. Inflammatory and immune responses also may differ by blood group, Fonarow said.
"Nevertheless, the risks associated with the non-O blood group are modest, and far greater risk is imparted by age, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes and other traditional risk factors, which should remain the key focus of cardiovascular risk detection and prevention," he said.
Copyright (c) 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
- More Health News on:
- Heart Diseases


text:
SEC Staff to Host Decimalization Roundtable
Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2012 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that its staff will host a roundtable early next year to discuss the impact of decimal-based stock trading on small and mid-sized companies, market professionals, investors, and U.S. securities markets.
The roundtable will be held on Feb. 5 at the SEC's Washington, D.C., headquarters, and will be open to the public and webcast live on the SEC's website. Information on the agenda and participants will be issued shortly.
U.S. stock markets adopted decimal pricing increments in place of fractions in 2001, in part to address concerns that the U.S. was at a competitive disadvantage to markets outside the U.S. using decimal pricing. Proponents of decimal pricing also pointed to evidence of artificially wide spreads — the difference between the price to buy and sell a stock — with fractional pricing, which might benefit market makers at the expense of investors. Since the advent of decimalization, however, various parties have raised concerns that its adoption may be detrimental to small and mid-sized companies.
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, enacted in April, directed the Commission to conduct a study of the effects of decimalization on initial public offerings (IPOs) and on small and middle-capitalization companies. In its Report to Congress on Decimalization, the SEC staff recommended that the Commission solicit the views of investors, companies, market professionals, academics, and other interested parties on decimalization generally, its effects on IPOs and on trading and liquidity for small and mid-cap companies, and what, if any, changes should be considered. The roundtable will provide a forum to discuss these issues and explore specific recommendations on structuring pilot programs to gather additional data and analysis on these issues.


text:
46°38' / 27°44'
Translation from Pinkas Hakehillot Romania
Published by Yad Vashem
Published in Jerusalem, 1969
Project Coordinator
Our sincere appreciation to Yad
Vashem for permission
to put this material on the JewishGen web site.
This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of
Jewish Communities, Romania,
Volume 1, pages 120-123, published by Yad
Vashem, Jerusalem, 1969
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
English translation researched and edited by Robert S. Sherins, M.D.
Translated by Ziva Yavin, Ph.D.
Translation donated by Robert S. Sherins, M.D.,
Richard J. Sherins, M.D., and Beryle Solomon Buchman
Vaslui is a district town in the Moldavia region, on the estuary of the rivers Vasluietz and Balard. According to one tradition, it was founded by the Byzantines.
Year | Number | % of Jews in General Population |
1803 | 64 | |
1820 | 180 | |
1838 | 892 | |
1859 | 1,202 | 25.3% |
1889 | 2,823 | 41.0% |
1899 | 3,747 | 31.0 |
1910 | 3,296 | |
1930 | 3,729 | 26.7% |
1941 | 2,904 | 25.2% |
1942 | 3,824 | |
1947 | 3,200 |
Most of Vaslui's Jews were initially from Galicia and Bukovina. In the second half of the 19th century, many of the kidnapped (cantonists) escaping from Russia settled in Vaslui.
In 1867 many Jews were expelled from the villages and the farms around Vaslui. During that year many were arrested on the pretext that they were vagabonds. In 1886 a plague broke out infecting the Jewish population and as a result, a parcel of land was allocated for a new cemetery. In 1889 the Jews were expelled again from the villages and the farms of the district and the same thing happened again and again in 1901 and 1908.
During the farmer's rebellion, in 1907, 87 Jewish families were robbed and many of their houses were destroyed.
Jews from Vaslui dealt with grain trading. They built a mill and a soap factory. In 1910 there were among them 345 traders, 228 tailors, 26 shoemakers, 14 tinsmiths, 37 carpenters and 287 of other professions.
A similar condition can be found in the education area. The congregation's school was established in 1877. In 1897, a building was purchased for it and in 1914 it was built anew. However, the conservative Osey Tov organization opposed the school and founded a Talmud Torah of its own. It seemed that the poor people preferred to send their children to a Heder, while children of the rich people studied in governmental schools. In 1911 the number of children attending governmental schools was 65, while in the congregation's school there were 62.
In 1909 Rabbi Shalom Halpern arrived in Vaslui, a descendant of the Admor (a title of a Hasidic Rabbi) of Rogin dynasty and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yitzhak Friedman from Buhush (born in 1848 in Berditchev, Russia and died in 1939). He founded in Vaslui the Admorim court of the Vasluier Rebe. After him, the chair was passed to his son Haim, who was born in Buhush in 1876. Rabbi Haim Halpern was a pupil of the grandfather, Rabbi Friedman, and served in Vaslui until 1950. He passed away in 1957 in Haifa.
In the years 1938-1949, the Rabbi, Dr. Arie Dov Halpert, served in Vaslui. He was born in 1907 in Borsha, Transylvania, and was the leader of Agudat Israel in Romania. He immigrated to Israel in 1960.
For some time the writer and educator, Menachem Braunstein-Mabshan, was active in Vaslui. He published schoolbooks, poetry and translations.
In 1932 this committee was given formal status as a judicial essence and as a result, the Jewish public became interested in the congregation's activities. In the 1935 elections, 797 Jews participated.
On the eve of WWII the congregation maintained the following institutes: the hospital Bikur Holim (visiting the sick) with a clinic and a pharmacy; an old people's home; a new cemetery (in addition to the previous one); a ritual bath house; an elementary school, Osey Tov; a kindergarten; and also supported the Talmud Torah. The school was supported by the municipality. There were eight synagogues in Vaslui at that time. Apart from the meat tax, the congregation had income from houses that it owned. The budget included donations to Zionist funds and to welfare. With welfare matters others were also involved The Society of Jewish Women, The Montifiori Association of the Craftsmen, and Ezra, the society of mutual help that was founded in 1920. Also, the kehillah operated a credit bank.
During the years 1920-1921, the Zionist Federation published a weekly bulletin and a farm for preparation of pioneers was also established.
On November 10, 1949, the Legionnaires took over the Jewish school. That same month the Jews were forced to dig out the bones of the deceased from the old cemetery and transfer them to the new one. 23 wealthy traders were arrested by the Legionnaire police and forced to sign a statement to hand over all of their assets and shops. On the 1st of June several Jews were sent to Taragu-Jiu camp, including some wealthy traders with a communist libel. On the night of June 29, 1941, all the distinguished members of the kehillah were taken as hostages and were told they will be shot or hurt if one Romanian soldier is injured. On July 1, 1941 all the Jewish men, up to 60, were imprisoned in the synagogue. Some were sent to hard labor and some were coerced to work in the town. The rest were expelled to three farms in the district. The congregation was forced to provide them with food. In September 1941 the Mayor published a decree prohibiting the Jews to be present in the market for more then one hour per day in order to buy food. After that, they were not allowed to come to the market at all, in order to separate them from the Christian population; the congregation had to provide the food. They were also forced to wear the mark of disgrace.
Jews that were originally from Bessarabia were sent to a concentration camp in Caracal and some were killed on the way. Others were expelled to Transnistria. Jews from villages and farms such as Cauest, Pungest (Pungesti), Tibana, Negrest (Negresti), and more were transferred to Vaslui; altogether 600, and the congregation had to take care of their employment. The congregation was also forced to supply food, clothing and medicines to the Jews employed in the work companies.
The economic situation of the Jews at that time is evident from the following numbers from 1942: out of 286 craftsmen and workers only 160 were employed; out of 159 clerks (commerce and industry) only 49 were working; out of 470 grocers and industrialists only 160 were active; out of 22 of liberal professions only 13 continued working; and out of 24 other professions only 5. Only 8-10% of all the professional groups were active. In all the Vaslui district 462 buildings, 8 mills, one factory, 983 hectares of land watered by rain, 3,121 hectares of forests, 21 hectares of vineyards and 3 hectares of lakes were confiscated from the Jews.
When the orphans returned from Transnistria in February 1944, 300 arrived in Vaslui and were housed in the synagogue. When the [war] front got closer to the town the children were transferred to Buzau.
After the War, life in Vaslui went back to normal.
The General Archive of The History of The Jewish People, RM 154; RM 160.
The Central Zionist Archive, A 133 (99).
Yad Vashem Archive
IM 1220; 011/181 (33336); 011/171 (4, 36, 53, 67, 71, 80); 011/18; 03/1462; PKR/I23 (87-89); PKR/I112 (125255); PKR/I113 (125660); PKR/I114 (1261).W. Filderman Archive
M. Karp Arcive
Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 5 Jan 2007 by LA


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text: Since 2006, to preemptively fight foreclosure fraud for the benefit of the most vulnerable, the Office of the District Attorney initiated an innovative program which sends a letter to any homeowner of Contra Costa County who has received a "Notice of Default" (the first notice to homeowner(s) that they may lose their residence to foreclosure.) This bilingual letter informs homeowners that they need to be wary of foreclosure scams and they should promptly contact free HUD certified counselors for financial advice. The letter also refers individuals to the local Bar Association if they seek civil recourse against the lender. And, if one is a victim of a crime, the resident is advised to contact the Office of the District Attorney. To date, the District Attorney's Office has mailed out over 73,600 letters to homeowners of Contra Costa County.


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Pretoria - In an effort to provide a more effective service to foreign visitors, South African banks have extended their operating hours for the duration of the World Cup.
Since the World Cup kick-off last Friday, banks including First National Bank (FNB), Absa and Nedbank have been operating until 7pm in all host cities.
Absa's Retail Bank Chief Executive, Gavin Opperman, said not only will 33 Absa branches located in the host cities extend their hours to as late as 7pm; selected branches will also be open from 10am to 1pm on Saturdays until 11 July 2010.
Opperman said the bank has further created a team of foreign language speakers to assist visitors over the phone during the tournament period.
"We are preparing our people to interact with international customers and assist with a wide range of banking needs," said Opperman.
FNB CEO, Michael Jordaan, said until 31 July 2010, the bank had extended their hours at the 17 key-site branches in the host cities.
"During weekdays, the branches will close at 7pm and on Saturdays at 3:30pm.
Jordaan explained that during the extended hours, the bank's focus will be entirely on meeting the needs of foreign visitors, including personal banking and commercial banking customers.
"The extra banking hours are FNB's contribution at a time when everything around us will be unusual and exciting," he said, adding that the bank had also enabled a translating centre to assist non-English speaking visitors who enter their branches.
A call centre, where customers can determine the extended-hour sites and the services to be offered, has been set up. Members of the public can contact 0860 11 22 44.
Nedbank has also extended its operating hours from 8am to 6pm during the week and 8am to 3pm on Saturdays. The extended hours will run until 16 July 2010.


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Central European Experience with 2 Nights Paris & 2 Nights London – Westbound
Savor the experience of Central Europe's gems along the Rhine, Moselle, and Main Rivers, and continue your adventure with wonderful visits to Paris and London.Begin your European river cruise vacation in "The Golden City" of Prague. See the Hradčany Castle grounds, St. Vitus Cathedral, and Old Town's Astronomical Clock with guided sightseeing in the spectacular capital of Czech Republic. You'll transfer to Nuremberg to board your Avalon Suite Ship® and take a tour of the city's medieval architecture and amazing sights. Sail to Bamberg to see the home of imperial dynasties. Next stop is Würzburg— the "Pearl of the Romantic Road," followed by a cruise to Rüdesheim and the amazing Rhine Gorge. You'll sail through the spectacular Wachau Valley to the wine village of Bernkastel, and on to the ancient city of Trier. Along the enchanting Moselle River, make your way to Remich, Luxembourg to disembark from your Avalon European river cruise, and transfer via high-speed train to Paris to start your Monograms vacation. You'll enjoy VIP sightseeing in "The City of Lights" with an expert guide, including the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Louvre Museum and free time to enjoy with the suggestions and support of your Monograms Local Host®. Your European vacation continues with a trip to London. Enjoy guided sightseeing, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral, as well as free time to really get to know the city. Carry your river cruise memories home to share and remember for a lifetime as a trip you'll never forget!
City Highlights
Day 1 Prague: welcome to Czech RepublicDay 2 Prague: guided sightseeing, see the Astronomical Clock and visit Hradčany Castle groundsDay 3 Prague–Nuremberg (Embarkation): travel by motorcoach to Nuremberg, guided tour; onboard welcome receptionDay 4 Bamberg: guided sightseeing, see the Old Town HallDay 5 Würzburg: guided sightseeing, visit the Bishop's ResidenzDay 6 Main River Village: guided walkDay 7 Rüdesheim–Rhine Gorge: visit Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum in Rüdesheim; special treat; cruise through the Rhine GorgeDay 8 Bernkastel: guided walk; wine tastingDay 9 Trier: choice of guided city sightseeing or "Roman Trier" sightseeing in Trier, see the Porta NigraDay 10 Remich (Disembarkation)–Paris: transfer by high-speed train to ParisDay 11 Paris: guided sightseeingDay 12 Paris-London, England: travel to London by high-speed trainDay 13 London: guided sightseeingDay 14 London: your vacation ends this morning
In the event of water level problems or any problems of a technical nature, it may be necessary to operate the itinerary by motorcoach or to alter the program.Included visits and special features are subject to change. If a change is necessary, a substitute will be offered.Please check visa requirements with your local consulate(s); responsibility for obtaining visas rests with the traveler.


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Sodium Ascorbate is not acidic and will not contribute to gastric irritation in sensitive persons. Sodium Ascorbate is synthesized from a combination of Sodium Bicarbonate and Ascorbic Acid to form Sodium Ascorbate. Sodium Ascorbate is an inexpensive buffered form of vitamin C. It is pharmaceutical grade.
Suggested Use: As a dietary supplement, take 1/2 level teaspoon daily, preferably with meals. preferably with meals
Warnings:This product contains sodium and should not be used by those on sodium-restricted diets.
Potency: 1363 gm.


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September 16, 2013
Safety advisory: K-State Police Department investigating reports of an unknown male exposing himself
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
The K-State Police Department is investigating reports of an unknown male who exposed himself to at least two individuals in the central area of campus during the evening hours of Sept. 15 .
The subject was described as a white male, 30-40 years of age, between 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall with a husky build, and wearing shorts and a T-shirt. The K-State community is reminded of services such as Wildcat Walk, which is a free service to all; just call 785-395-SAFE.
Anyone who has information about this case should contact the K-State Police Department at 785-532-6412 or you may leave anonymous tips at www.k-state.edu/police/silent.


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20 Bad Girls With Smoking Hot Mug Shots
Bad girls with smoking hot mug shots – they make us feel so good. P. Diddy once said that. Kind of.
Just as most chicks like bad boys, you'd be hard pressed to find many guys who don't at least fantasize about shacking up with a bad girl. Most criminals have a screw loose and, if the old idiom holds true, that equals straight pleasure town in the sack. Now, we don't want any ladies reading this to think they need to go out and start a crime spree. But, if you're a bad girl with a smoking hot mug shot and have had a run in with the law, we're interested in the tale.
We scoured thousands, nay TRILLIONS, of mug shots online to bring you this list of the 20 hottest bad girls. What makes a mug shot hot? Sometimes it was a devilish grin, other times it's a case of post-sex hair. Bottom line – if you look at it and get a funny feeling downstairs, you've got a winner.
After reviewing this lights out lineup, you might just submit your application to the local police department.


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This was published 11 years ago
US warns Assad over chemical weapons
The US and allies have repeated warnings to Syria about the use of chemical weapons against rebels, after intelligence showed the Assad regime was moving stockpiles.
By David Sanger and Eric Schmitt
Washington: The Syrian military's movement of chemical weapons in recent days has prompted the US and several allies to repeat their warning to the President, Bashar al-Assad, that he would be "held accountable" if his forces used the weapons against the rebels fighting his government.
The warnings, which one European official said were "deliberately vague to keep Assad guessing," were conveyed through Russia and other intermediaries.
What the Syrian forces intend to do with the weapons remains murky, according to officials who have seen the intelligence from Syria.
One US official provided the most specific description yet of what has been detected, saying "the activity we are seeing suggests some potential chemical weapon preparation" which goes beyond the mere movement of stockpiles among Syria's several dozen known sites.
But the official declined to be more specific about what those preparations entailed.
During the weekend, the activity in Syria prompted emergency communications among Western allies, which have been developing contingency plans in case they decide to intervene to neutralise the weapons, a task the Pentagon estimates would require more than 75,000 troops.
But there were no signs that preparations for any such effort were about to begin.
So far, the US President, Barack Obama, has been cautious about intervening in Syria, declining to arm the opposition groups directly, or even to formally recognise a newly formed coalition of opposition forces that the US helped create.
But at a news conference in August, Mr Obama said any evidence that Mr Assad was moving the weapons in a threatening way or using them would be "a red line" that could prompt direct US intervention.
"That would change my calculus," he said. "That would change my equation."
US officials would not say during the weekend whether the activity they were seeing edged towards the limit set by Mr Obama.
"These are desperate times for Assad, and this may simply be another sign of desperation," said one senior US diplomat involved in the effort to dissuade Mr Assad's forces from using the chemical weapons.
A senior Israeli official said it was possible the movement of the weapons – and the apparent preparations to use them – could be a bluff, intended as a warning to the West when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the US were debating greater support to opposition groups.
"It's very hard to read Assad," one Israeli official said. "We are seeing a kind of action that we've never seen before." He declined to elaborate.
The White House would not comment on the intelligence reports but a senior administration official issued a new warning to the Syrians.
"The President has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a red line for the United States," the official said. "We consistently monitor developments related to Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons, and are in regular contact with international partners who share our concern.
"The Assad regime must know that the world is watching, and that they will be held accountable by the United States and the international community if they use chemical weapons or fail to meet their obligations to secure them."
Another senior US official refused to give more detail about what the Syrians were doing, saying only, "There's a sufficient degree of concern to warrant even closer monitoring. We're concerned about it, to be sure."
Several months ago, the US military quietly sent a taskforce of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there to – among other things – prepare for the possibility that Syria would lose control of its chemical weapons.
Turkey has asked NATO for two batteries of the Patriot anti-missile system, in part as protection against Syrian missiles that might come into Turkish territory.
To make the case for the emplacements, the Turks have raised the possibility that chemical weapons could be used in the warheads.
This is not the first time activity at stockpile sites has been detected. On September 28 the US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, said there had been "some movement" of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles to put them in more secure locations.
"While there's been some limited movement again, the major sites still remain in place, still remain secure," Mr Panetta said then.
But the recent activity appears to be of a different nature, and officials are no longer willing to say that all the sites remain secure.
"We're worried about what the military is doing," one official said, "but we're also worried about some of the opposition groups," including some linked to Hezbollah, which has set up camps near some of the chemical weapons depots.
Since the crisis began in Syria and concern has been focused on its vast stockpile, the US and its allies have increased electronic eavesdropping and other surveillance activities of the sites. A senior defence official said no US troops had been put on heightened alert but the Pentagon was prepared to do so, if necessary.
"From the beginning of this crisis, we have conducted prudent military planning so that we are prepared for all contingencies," the official said.
The New York Times


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International University in Apulia
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A Work of Art Is a Temporary Thing
Photos: Anders Sune Berg
Through August 5, the contemporary art space Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen is presenting Christina Mackie's (1956) solo show. This is the first showing in Scandinavia for the artist, who was born in Oxford, raised in Canada, and now lives in London. Titled "Painting the Weights", the exhibition is one of Mackie's many long-term research projects on natural materials and technologies, and the connections between nature, people and societies.
Mackie uses extremely varying forms of expression and materials – anything can become a medium for her: a drawing, watercolors, a found object, an installation, ceramics, photographs, or even three-dimensional animation. Variously combining these elements, she forms a collection. The relationships between these materials form the main body of her exhibit and the composition – which is at once whole and fragmented; it comes apart, and then binds together again. In the press release, "Painting the Weights" is described as an installation that consists of two parts: the first part reflects the artist's studio, with makeshift tables and shelves on which objects both created and found by Mackie are displayed; the second is composed of scaffolding, used to display large-format photographs of lonely figures staying at a residence.
Mackie's main weapon is the combination and connecting of elements. Every exhibition differs in terms of composition – the relationships between the materials are one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable. A wooden box full of tiny objects, a covered glass dish, a spray bottle, a picture of an atomic mushroom cloud, lumps of clay, purple mounds of sand, wooden planks with improvised faces, images of jelly-fish, computer monitors – it's like a cabinet of curiosities. The question may arise – How can there possibly be some sort of relationship between all of these things? But we're not talking about a cabinet of curiosities here, but rather a modeling of relationships; possibly, even symbolic connections that form between things.
One of the artist's points of focus is trestle art, i.e, art that is variable, changeable – it's not fixed, it can be taken apart. "There are intricate relationships between all of the elements, they are chosen in a particular order to accommodate the natural laws at play that I see in the overall pieces. The work is always temporary. You bring it together only for a moment, and then it's gone," explains Mackie.
Mediations (not to be confused with meditations) of objects and things, and the interaction and mutual relationships between a space and locations within it, are one of the themes of this year's international contemporary art exhibition, dOCUMENTA(13). Although Mackie didn't participate, it seems as if her fascination with the materialistic – and its power and influence in forming the past, the present and the future – would dialog perfectly with the works done by other artists there. Whatever the real situation may be, this is why it is so tempting to talk about Mackie's works in the context of the conceptual conditions (if they can be so called!) set up by dOCUMENTA(13). As the curator of the exhibition, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, writes in her lengthy essay cum press-release: "A worldly intra-action with materials, objects, other animals and their perceptions, suggests forms of de-symbolization and disowning knowledge and notions of property, as well as providing the possibilities of a slower form of time – the time of materials. This involves reconnecting people with their ancient knowledge of directly caring for their own sustenance and food (..), as well as forms of degrowth, alternatives to financial exchange, as in time banks or barter economies, establishing possibilities for relations and intra-actions with all things that are not digital." (The dance was very frenetic, lively, rattling, clanging, rolling, contorted, and lasted for a long time, 2012) Bringing into focus searches for alternative ways of life, dOCUMENTA(13) takes on a position of a known form of escapism, and at the same time, the role of challenger, by raising the question of how much, and in what way, are we addicted to systems of our own creation – market, economic, social and political – as well as to virtual environments and digital technologies. This question is also aimed at art, which has now become an essential part of the consumer sphere.
Christina Mackie's title work, the video animation "Painting the Weights", brings the virtual environment to the forefront. The power of the medium is not subjected to critique, but rather serves as a weapon with which to illustrate the structures of relationships. In it, we see objects levitating in a room, completing one another, and then disappearing. Basically, the work is about how objects react in relationship to one another: whether they are soft, hard, heavy or brutal. In interviews, Mackie often stresses the temporariness of materials – how they waste away, disappearing and evaporating – including the internet and all of the forms and objects that surround us. Everything turns to dust – the physical falls apart, information is lost; this is where the title "Painting the Weights" come from. "I was thinking about all the material in my studio – not just artworks, but all of the junk that amasses there – and its eventual aspect as dust. I decided to make a short film about that. I started asking around about how I could turn objects into dust with animation, and a number of people came back to me saying 'your problem will be when it comes to painting the weights', which is the working term for giving the images physical attributes," reveals Mackie.
Here the artist serves out another explanation, pointing out the connotations with waiting, which is one of the intrinsic aspects in her creative practice – "waiting how things organize themselves, one after the other". She has embodied this principle in her piece, "Us, the Residents", which came about while she resided in an apartment block complex in Melbourne. All of the images, in which we see both Mackie and other residents, were taken from her room's balcony. She describes it as a time when she, just like the others, spent all of her waking hours at the computer or the television, watching all of the "garbage" that they show. Being in an unchanging place like this for a short amount of time, people find themselves in an interstitial position that is largely artificial – they have no interest in bettering the environment around them, for instance, sprucing up the interior, because soon enough, they'll be leaving. They spend their days doing the same thing – mostly working, waiting, wishing for something, or just bored. It's a temporary, transitional stage; short and without any expectations in relation to permanency.
There is much of the mystical and unexpected in the way that things and objects grow out of one another, how they complete and compete against one another, and how they reveal and hide one another. The same can be said about how theses things become discoveries, intermediaries and guides to something else; or, even the complete opposite – nuisances, mistakes, hindrances. Quite possibly, a good way in which to discuss this is with the help of a mediator, as the curators Søren Andreasen and Lars Bang Larsen propose: "Everything becomes what it is through mediations, conceived as connections within the processes that establish things. In the Hegelian sense, mediation describes the tension of the process of becoming. This is unlike a relation that is static and fixed. A relation is ready, whereas mediation is something that is in the making, is being produced, that has not yet found stability." (The Critical Mass of Mediation, 2012)


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Sunday, June 5, 2011
Disney explains his multiplane camera
In this archive video, master pitchman Walt explains how they came up with the idea, and how it helped create the immersive forest shots in Bambi.
Via Best of YouTube
Direct link to YT video
The ILLUSION OF LIFE: DISNEY ANIMATION
8 comments:
- Unknown said...
Still using this technique today although in after effects, it looks simple but is incredibly difficult to do
some examples of test work using this technique - June 5, 2011 at 9:50 AM
- Unknown said...
It's crazy to think that I just finished up a job painting a parallax scrolling background for a videogame that took less than a week and realizing how much technology has simplified this process. It makes me thankful to live in an age with such great tools and access to them, great post.
- June 5, 2011 at 11:20 AM
- Tyler J said...
Disney owned the camera, but his brilliant employee (who invented Mickey Mouse too, by the way) Ub Iwerks is credited with inventing the multiplane camera:
However, the concept was used in what was considered the first animated movie, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventure's of Prince Achmed (1926):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-plane_camera - June 5, 2011 at 3:24 PM
- David Glenn said...
He was always trying to make his films more entertaining.
- June 6, 2011 at 1:22 PM
- Rich said...
Very educative, thanks.
What efforts!
By the way, looking at Walt Disney elaborating; his features somewhat reminded me of Salvador Dali. Never noticed this kind of resemblance before. - June 6, 2011 at 2:44 PM
- James Gurney said...
Tyler, thanks so much for the clarification and the links. It's true that the Disney studios weren't necessarily the first innovator in a lot of animation techniques. Winsor McCay was singlehandedly doing stunning through-animation and mindboggling effects work way ahead of the mouse house.
- June 6, 2011 at 2:49 PM
- James Gurney said...
Rockhopper, impressive stuff, thanks for sharing the links.
- June 6, 2011 at 2:50 PM
- Vicki said...
I remember as a child seeing this. I think he may done some other programs as well that showed this effect. It was then that I realized (at the age of 10 or so) that when you walk along a path, the trees change in relationship to each other as well as to you. It is still an endless source of fascination to me to watch their relationships change as I move. Thanks Walt.
- June 7, 2011 at 5:17 PM


text:
Geneseo, IL — ArmaLite has announced the immediate availability of a limited run rifle. The small batch of AR-10A4's will be offered with two special upgrades — a stainless steel match grade barrel and a National Match trigger. This is a rare configuration for an AR-10.
The rifles are being shipped as an EXCLUSIVE to the RSR Group, one of the top firearms distributors in the U.S. (www.rsrgroup.com) For interested customers, the formal name of this rifle is AR-10A4 BSNF. Contact your local ArmaLite dealer for details.
ArmaLite manufactures and sells semiautomatic rifles in a variety of calibers including 5.56mm and 7.62mm, long range super-accurate bolt action rifles in calibers including .308 Winchester, 300 Winchester, 338 Lapua, and 50 BMG, and classic 9mm pistols. Visit: www.armalite.com
Recommended AR resources:
The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. I
The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. II
Gunsmithing the AR-15, How to Maintain, Repair & Accessorize
Find more gun books, DVDs and downloads at gundigeststore.com.


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Please try the following:
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This error indicates that the page you are trying to access is secured with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
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Lady Marion 17 inch Mold Set 1912 Traveling Suit
Buy this mold: Lady Marion 17 Mold Set Lady Marion 17 is a 17 inch doll. Lady Marion 17 has a porcelain head and upper body. Porcelain ends just below the bust. She has a shapely cloth body. She has full porcelain arms that can also be cut off just below the elbow for using half arms and a wire armature. Her legs are porcelain up to just above the knee. Her shoes were sculpted smooth except for the shoe soles. Her shoes may be painted on in any style. Also shoes may be cut from thin glove leather and glued on above the molded porcelain sole after the sole has been painted and fired. Many styles may be made. There is a basic shoe pattern printed in the painting instructions. Detail can be added to the basic pattern for different shoe styles. Set includes Painting Instructions and Body Pattern Buy this Pattern: 1912 Traveling Suit Titanic Era Collection. Fits 17 inch doll.
French Fashion Body Fashion Plate Collection Titanic Era Collection
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According to the BBC website, business activity was hit hard by last month's exceptionally cold weather, with the number of people visiting shops down by more than five per cent.
For one person, this will have been an extremely pleasant piece of news, because for once he won't have to explain himself.
That person is, of course, Gideon George Osborne.
For one month, he hasn't been in the unenviable position of having to root around in the political undergrowth for a reason the economy has tanked – that isn't related to his own hopelessly inadequate economic policies.
For one month only!
He will not have an excuse when the figures come in for April, worse than for March, as sane economic forecasters should expect.
Instinct says he will tell us the funeral of Margaret Thatcher will have something to do with it. He used the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as a shield – what goes for 'matches' must surely apply also to 'dispatches'.
The real reason will be the effect of the huge benefit cuts, that will take £19 billion out of the economy over the next year, if commentators are to be believed.
That's just in money terms. Add in a conservative estimate of the fiscal multiplier (the effect on the economy) and we're staring into the black pit of a £30.4 billion loss. That would be £500 for every person in the UK, if we were all affected.
But the richest among us won't be. It is on the poorest and least able to defend themselves that this hammer blow has fallen. The government has been giving money back to the richest, as we all know.
In fact, this show of support for his cosseted buddies might protect them from the storm that's coming, and may therefore prove to be a shrewd move – but we must all remember that Osborne is not an intelligent man and good fortune coming to anyone as a result of his policies is pure chance.
Because the rich will be affected by the benefit cuts. Poor people have no choice but to spend the money they receive. They have to buy things they need and pay the bills, so it goes on food, heat, light, water, the rent, repairs and other necessaries. With less money available to them, they will not be spending as much in the shops, and will be more careful about how much gas, electricity and water they use, as well.
Who owns and runs the shops? Who owns the shares in the utility companies (now that the bulk of shares have been bought up from the middle-class speculators who bought them in the 1980s)?
The rich.
After a few months of this, we'll see what happens to their profit margins. My guess is that a £100,000 tax rebate won't help very much.
The propaganda machine keeps spewing out nonsense, of course. Only last weekend we heard Francis Maude telling Jonathan Dimbleby and the Any Questions audience in Exeter: "The Coalition government, which is two parties which have come together from a different place, in the national interest, to do something quite big and difficult, which is to address the biggest budget deficit any country in the west had."
It wasn't the largest budget deficit of any western country – either by size or percentage of GDP. That was a flat-out lie and I wish Jimbles would pull him up on it.
The deficit in the United States is greater than ours in percentage terms; in money terms, it dwarfs the UK.
Across the whole world, Japan has the biggest deficit.
Strangely, you don't hear the Japanese making a big fuss about it.


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How to fix the front facing FaceTime camera in a Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4
If you enjoy using FaceTime or Skype with your friends, family, and colleagues, the front facing camera on your iPhone is probably pretty important to you. If it starts malfunctioning or stops working, a DIY repair isn't too difficult and will cost you far less than replacing your Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4.
Disclaimer: As with any repair, neither iMore nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It's also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don't feel comfortable opening your device, don't. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.
What you need for a DIY CDMA (Verizon or Sprint) iPhone 4 front facing camera replacement
PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.
- CDMA iPhone 4 (please note there ARE internal differences between the GSM and CDMA models - this guide strictly deals with the CDMA model - in the US, that means Verizon or Sprint)
- Replacement front facing camera - Link to part
- #00 Phillips screwdriver
- Flat blade screwdriver
- Pry tool or spudger
- Security screwdriver (to remove the 2 screws in your dock connector, all CDMA models will come with security screws)
Power off your iPhone 4
Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.
Remove the back
- First remove the bottom 2 dock connector screws in your iPhone 4. Use your five point security screwdriver for this as all versions of the CDMA iPhone 4 have security screws in the dock connector.
- To remove the back simply slide the back upwards and lift it off gently.
- Set the back and 2 dock connector screws aside.
Organize your screws
It's very important to make sure you remember where you are pulling screws from, so place them in an arrangement that you'll understand and remember. I normally lay them out the same way every time I disassemble a device so I remember where they came from and how they go back in. They're all different sizes so trying to figure out where they go if you get them mixed up probably won't be fun.
Remove the battery
- To remove the battery you'll need to remove the #00 screw holding the battery clip in place. Remove this screw located to the bottom left of the battery.
- The metal clip on the battery is what clips the battery to the logic board. You'll need to pop this clip up with your plastic pry tool. Simply stick the end of your pry tool underneath the clip and gently pull upwards until it unfastens from the logic board.
- To remove the battery, I do not recommend using the plastic pull tab. There is quite a bit of adhesive underneath the battery and the tab will normally just rip off or you can bend the battery. Instead, run your pry tool along the right side of the battery and break the adhesive that way. Once the battery is free from the adhesive, you can pull the battery out of the phone. There are no other connectors holding it in.
- I typically fold the plastic tab over while working on the iPhone 4 to keep it out of the way while I'm disassembling parts. It's not necessary but convenient.
Remove the grounding clip
To the left of where you disconnected the battery you'll see another screw holding in a grounding clip over the antenna. We'll need to remove it.
- Unscrew the one screw holding the grounding clip in place with your #00 Phillips screwdriver.
- Gently lift the grounding clip out of the device. It's very tiny as you can see above. Take care not to misplace it or lose it.
Remove the dock connector shield and disconnect the cable
- There is a shield held on with two screws covering the dock connector cable. Remove the two screws holding it in place and set the shield and screws aside, remembering where they came from. (They are labeled as screw 1 & 2 in the photo above.)
- Next, use your pry tool to pry up the actual dock connector cable. Be careful as there is adhesive holding the cable in place as well. Peel back the adhesive gently to free the cable.
Unclip the antenna from the logic board
Underneath where you removed the grounding clip, you'll see a tiny circular cable. This is your antenna cable. You'll need to unclip it from the logic board.
- Take the edge of your pry tool or spudger and gently pry up the circular head to detach it from the logic board.
- You'll notice the cable is wound around some metal brackets. Just gently guide it out of the brackets with your pry tool and finger. It's attached to the speaker assembly. Once you've finished unwinding it from the brackets, you can leave it where it is for now.
Remove the top logic board shield
- There are 5 screws holding the logic board shield in place as labeled in the photo above. Remove the 5 screws holding it in place plus screw number 6 off to the right (we'll get to this one in a second). Just be sure to remember which holes they came out of as the screws are different sizes. I keep them arranged in the shape they came out of the logic board with the shield next to it. I find this to be the easiest way to keep them in order.
- Next you'll need to remove the shield. There is a tiny clip built into the shield holding it in place. (Refer to the photo above.) Grab the shield by the top where the top screw came out and gently lift up and push down. The bottom notch will come out and you should be able to gently lift the shield out of the device.
Remove wifi antenna grounding clip
- The number 6 screw we removed previously we're now returning to. There is a clip underneath it. Gently use your pry tool to remove it.
- You'll find a cross head screw underneath it. We'll get back to that in just a minute.
Disconnect 7 cables from the logic board
- Pop up all the cables labeled in the pictures above by gently lifting them with your pry tool or spudger..
- Next gently lift the camera out of the device. You'll notice there is a tiny tab that is seated underneath the LCD and digitizer cables to the right.
- Play close attention to the direction in which the cables pop up. The cable furthest to the right will pop up in the opposite direction of the others.
Remove the logic board
- There are 5 screws you'll need to remove in order to remove the logic board. Three need to be removed with a flat blade screwdriver (flathead) while the other two will be removed with your #00 Phillips screwdriver.
- Remove the screws numbered 1-3 in the image above using your flat blade screw driver. Make sure you remember which ones go where as the heads are a bit different.
- Now remove screws 4 and 5 with your #00 screwdriver. Notice that the screw labeled number 5 will have a tiny gold grounding clip for the camera underneath it. Make sure you don't lose this and save it for re-assembly.
- You should now be able to remove your logic board. Holding it at the bottom, gently pull it upwards. I use my other hand to lift up at the top where the rear facing camera used to be.
- Take note that there is a small rubber piece that sits at the top of the logic board. You will need this for re-assembly so make sure it doesn't fall off. If you lose this, you could experience wifi or reception issues.
Remove the metal retainer & front facing camera
There is a metal retainer covering the front facing camera. To remove it use your pry tool to gently pull it off. Make sure you don't lose it as you'll need it for reassembly. Now that the metal retainer has been removed you can gently lift the front facing camera out of the iPhone 4.
Replace the front facing camera & metal retainer
Now replace the front facing camera with the new replacement part. Once it is securely in place you can replace the metal retainer by snapping it back in place.
Reassemble your iPhone 4
Once you've gotten the front facing camera seated in correctly and the metal retainer snapped back into place to hold it down, you're ready to finish putting your Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4 back together. To do so you can either follow these directions in reverse order or you can refer to our reassembly video above.
Since the reassembly video covers an almost complete teardown, you can go ahead and forward to around 3:30 and follow the directions from that point.
After you've managed to get all the pieces of your iPhone 4 put together and the screws back snug into their homes, you should be able to power it up. Tap into the camera icon and test out the front facing camera to make sure all went well. If it did you should now have a fully functioning front facing camera again so you can get back to FaceTiming and Skype calling.
Want to know how to perform another type of iPhone repair or modification? Send me suggestions to email@example.com.
For questions or to inquire about mail-in repairs through PXLFIX, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or e-mail us directly! Of course, you can like us and follow us just because you think we're cool too!
Additional Resources:
- Mod & DIY forums
- How to replace the front facing FaceTime camera in a GSM/AT&T iPhone 4
- How to replace the rear camera in an iPhone 4
- Even more mod & DIY tutorials
Master your iPhone in minutes
iMore offers spot-on advice and guidance from our team of experts, with decades of Apple device experience to lean on. Learn more with iMore!
iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.
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Jewish World Review April 17, 2003/ 15 Nisan, 5763
Ann Coulter AT LEAST SADDAM WASN'T AT TAILHOOK!http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Despite liberals' calm assurance that Iraq wasn't harboring terrorists, this week Abul Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, was captured in Baghdad. This is the second time the United States has caught Abbas. But the last time, the Europeans let him go. That's why liberals are so eager to have Europeans "help" with the war on terrorism. They did a bang-up job last time. In 1985, Muslim terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and threatened to kill the passengers and crew unless 50 imprisoned Palestinians were released by Israel. The terrorists doused American and British women with gasoline and taunted them with matches. They forced passengers to hold live grenades. When their demands were not met, the terrorists shot a wheelchair-bound American, Leon Klinghoffer, and forced other passengers at gunpoint to throw him overboard in his wheelchair. Even as the Americans were preparing a rescue mission, the Italian and Egyptian governments made a deal with the terrorists, offering the release of the Palestinians and safe passage to Egypt to end the ordeal. The Europeans were delighted with this masterful act of diplomacy. The Americans were not so pleased. Oliver North conceived of an operation to get the terrorists back. Contrary to Egyptian president Mubarak's assurances that the terrorists had already left Egypt, North found out the terrorists were still there. Indeed, working with Israeli intelligence, North determined the precise EgyptAir 737 that would carry the terrorists out of Egypt, even down to the flight number. He wanted to intercept the flight, modeling the operation on the extraordinary World War II interception of Yamamoto, mastermind of Pearl Harbor. President Reagan was briefed on the daring plan -- along with copious warnings from timorous State Department officials that the Europeans might have their feelings bruised, America would look like a cowboy, and it would only strengthen the hard-liners in Egypt. Asked if the operation should proceed, Reagan said: "Good God! They've murdered an American here. Let's get on with it." Adm. Frank Kelso, the officer in charge of America's Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, ordered his men to carry out the mission. In no time flat, Tomcat fighters had taken off from the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga. After refueling in midair and guided by Hawkeyes, the Tomcats caught up with the EgyptAir flight. The fighters stealthily trailed their target for a while in total darkness, their lights off, even in the cockpit. Then the Tomcats swooped in on the EgyptAir flight, surrounded the plane, and forced it to land at a NATO base on Sicily controlled by the United States. The New York Post headline the next day was: "GOT 'EM." Reagan said: "I salute the Navy." And then Abul Abbas was released by the Europeans -- whom liberals insist on approval from in this war. Abbas dashed to safety in Iraq under Saddam Hussein -- whom liberals have assured us was not harboring terrorists. Republican presidents keep catching terrorists while liberals keep sending them back. If there is a parable of how liberals support the enemy, this is it. Adm. Kelso, whose men carried out the dauntless EgyptAir interception, was cashiered out of the Navy because of "Tailhook." Feminists don't care about Saddam Hussein and his rape rooms. But they were hopping mad at Adm. Kelso for walking through the Tailhook convention to say hello to his boys -- boys who captured Leon Klinghoffer's murderers. To jog the memory of the horror that was Tailhook, Lt. Paula Coughlin was the officer who made the most lurid allegations, accusing a black Marine of molesting her. But then she kept identifying different black males as the perpetrator. Liberals managed to put their concern for racist accusations against blacks on the back burner in this one case. When liberals get going, the ironies never end. Though Adm. Kelso was cleared of any wrongdoing after an official Navy investigation, liberals wanted him punished. Former Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., engaged in a hysterical witchhunt of Kelso, marching with her fellow termagants to the Senate to encourage them to deny Kelso retirement with four stars. Naturally, The New York Times editorialized against him. After a lifetime of honorable service to his country, Adm. Kelso was barely permitted to retire with four stars, in a 54-43 Senate vote. A majority of Democrats opposed Kelso, along with all the Republican women in the Senate -- Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Arlen Specter, Bob Packwood and so on. Had the Senate denied him his retirement with four stars, this American hero would have received a pension of $67,000 per year, rather than the princely sum of $84,000 per year given a four-star admiral. The left's relentless attacks on Oliver North hardly require elaboration. He was endlessly investigated, charged with crimes, indicted by Lawrence Walsh, and his Senate campaign destroyed. Al Gore compared North's supporters to Down syndrome children.
Now liberals are demanding that the Europeans be let into Iraq so they can release some more terrorists, while liberals do their part at home, carving up the colonels and admirals who capture people who murder Americans.
JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right.


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The Homer Invitational Track and Field Meet ushered in spring sports recently up at the Homer High track. With 14 teams in town from as far away as Glennallen, the track was a busy place bustling with athletes, coaches, race officials and spectators.
A welcome cadre of community volunteers sporting running shoes was among the crowd. They took up positions running timers and stopwatches, raking long jump pits, moving hurdles, waving relay flags.
These volunteers are members of the Kachemak Bay Running Club. I want to say a hearty thanks to all you KBRC folks for showing up and volunteering your time and supporting our high school track and field team. Your good cheer and passion for the sport of running and belief in lifelong healthy lifestyles is great energy to have around. Thank you for all the ways you support Homer youth running programs. Your presence around the track is a gift.
Kim Fine
Mariner Track and Field Mom